Jakarta – Visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday he would address a trade imbalance favouring his country after Indonesian officials raised the issue during talks.
"We have committed ourselves to ensure that there are no unnecessary impediments to trade and investment between our two economies," he told a lunch hosted by the Indonesia-Australia Business Council on the second day of a three-day visit.
Howard said last year saw steady growth in trade between the two neighbours. Citing Australia's own economic success, which had shown "one of the fastest" growth rates among industrialised countries, Howard said good corporate governance and clarity in the legal system were important to growth and would benefit trade and investment in Indonesia.
Indonesia exported 1.5 billion dollars worth of products and services to Australia in 2000 and imported 1.7 billion dollars, according to latest available figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics in Jakarta.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the first nine months of last year show the trend reversing, with Australian exports to Indonesia standing at 1.65 billion dollars and imports from Indonesia worth 1.85 billion dollars at current exchange rates. In remarks published this week, Australian ambassador Rick Smith said total trade last year was worth some 3.87 billion dollars – back to the level before the regional economic crisis which began in 1997.
Howard said one of the main aims of his visit was to "to stress the critical importance of growing business relations and economic links between Australia and Indonesia to the bilateral relationship between our two countries."
Howard admitted the relationship had suffered some political strains in recent years but said people-to-people links and business relations had sustained it.
"Sustained by very strong person-to-person links in so many areas... we know that the basic infrastructure of our relationship has remained very strong," he said.
The fact the two countries were neighbours meant that their societies "are together forever" and each had the obligation to contribute to the strengthening of the relationship. The business world of both countries could play a large role, Howard said.
As he spoke at a upscale hotel, some 10 students from the state University of Indonesia protested outside. In posters and shouted comments they accused Howard of being a "racist," a "bootlicker" and a "capitalist".
Legislators had called for the Howard visit to be postponed. They took umbrage when Canberra last year complained Indonesia was doing too little to curb people-smuggling. There are also allegations, strongly denied by Howard, that Australia backs independence supporters in Papua province.